In The Red – Volume 2

There’s something to be said for musical progression, for a band allowing themselves room to breathe. To let their new songs gestate and build natural from their previous endeavors without feeling the need to copy themselves. To let the music go in a direction that seems natural, free of expectations and the albatross around their necks of previous bands or, hell, previous records. Like allowing Classics Of Love to not sound like Operation Ivy, or the Evensto now sound like Minor Threat.

That said, I still miss Gunmoll. Mike Hale, vocalist/guitarist for In The Red, was also the frontman for that band, and goddamn, were they good – lengthy, mid-tempo dirges solidly rooted in what would later be known as “the Gainesville sound” and used as a backdrop for Hale’s roughhewn and wonderfully self-depricating lyrics. Hell, to be honest with you, I miss In The Red’s first album, Volume One – it seemed a natural step after Gunmoll’s demise. While Volume Two also strikes me as a natural progression for the band – and to their credit, the album never sounds forced – it also comes across as an inherently strange progression and an odd plateau for a band to reach towards.

Because, well, at times they sound eerily like a mid-90s radio-friendly grunge band here.

No, seriously. Grunge, man. It’s the strangest thing and, were it done particularly well, I’d have been the first to champion Volume Two for resuscitating a shitty genre and infusing it with a newfound sense of coolness. Unfortunately, well, it’s still grunge they seem to be messing around with here. In The Red’s stab at it is a little too much like putting lipstick on a cow carcass – it just wasn’t that rad before they did it, and the little bits of window-dressing they’re providing just doesn’t help that much. While that reads way harsher than I intend – the record is by no means rock-bottom awful – it’s just that I for one had higher expectations for the band. Or at least different ones. Gotta admit, it’s an odd avenue to explore, as a listener.

Whether it’s the strange chord progression and awkward-sounding chorus of Alone Is Still A Sound, the opening riffs of My Point Of View or perhaps just the thick, glossy production itself, full to the brim with Hale’s way-too-heavily layered vocals, it comes across as the weirdest mix-mash of a band you used to know filtered through something you would have heard on the “alternative” station fifteen years ago. Songs like, well, These Old Songs, manage to lose the grungesque undercurrent and sound like what they are: wonderfully crafted, slow and sad tunes laced with a sense of melancholy, something Hale’s seemingly able to do in his sleep, if he wanted to. But they’re a rarity – the majority of Volume Two is infused with this strange amalgamation of Stone Temple Pilots trying to get signed to No Idea, or something like that.

It’s a brave move, letting your songs come as they want to come, not forcing it and allowing things to be what they are. Sometimes it’s successful, sometimes it isn’t. The band should be applauded for their courage and their unflinching willingness to just do what they’re gonna do. But as a listener, I just don’t know. I’ve heard that this is a record that grows on you, that Volume Two is much like To The Confusion Of Our Enemies by the Riverboat Gamblers: a marked departure for the band, both sonically and production-wise, but one that only needs its own period of adjustment and repeated listens. Hell, I love that record now, but was definitely taken aback when I first heard it. Here’s hoping In The Red’s Volume Two has that kind of quality, that ability to creep slowly and almost imperceptibly onto the stereo over and over again.